Bungie Weekly Update 06.18.10

Actually, my feet are feeling the bulk of the burn in the wake of this year’s E3 extravaganza. And my fingers after attempting to transcribe the absurd amount of customization options we’re planning for Firefight 2.0 (which you’ll find embedded below). And my fragile mind, from nearly melting down after what felt like endless hours of backstage Reach demos.

The latter was much easier than I’d anticipated. After Marcus got a face full of makeup, he went way above and beyond to set the stage beautifully for us at Microsoft’s E3 keynote with the first ever glimpse of SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

After the spectacle, everybody and their mother wanted in on a sneak peak at Bungie’s space faring goods. We quickly became experts at blasting through the sweet slice of sand and stars, too. After dozens upon dozens of showings, we could run up the beach in our sleep, initiate the launch sequence blindfolded, and shatter the first wave of inbound Covenant bogeys without even breaking a sweat.

During one play through Mike Zak forgot to switch the controls back after we made the hand-off, but without missing a beat, he played through the first half of the demo inverted even though he’s always been a non-inverted guy (he’s Canadian, go figure). Nobody even picked up on it, though. His run was still golden.

If you haven’t seen the play through for yourself, you should take a moment to drop by our Reach project page. There you’ll find both the Campaign and Firefight trailers we launched earlier in the week alongside a pile of new screenshots and renders we packed into the cargo bay.

And while we tackled the press corps’ finest behind closed doors in our media briefing room (which was lavishly disguised as an ultramodern (and super cramped) living room), Sketch and Tung descended unto the teeming sea of humanity to tackle the public theater experience below. They even went off script and opened up some four player Firefight to participants plucked straight out of the audience. According to Brian, Tung was on fire and turned in a couple of “perfect games,” though apparently the films have been lost to the annals of time.

Personally, I find it hard to believe. During some hands-on sessions we ran in the later hours on Tuesday night, Tung challenged me to a Firefight showdown. “Let’s see who the better player is, Ginger,” he sniped. Three Waves and twelve minutes later, I’d amassed 12,621 points. Joe Tung, self-proclaimed best player at the studio? A paltry 5,771. Now, I’ve never claimed that math is my strong suit, but I’m pretty sure that’s nearly twice the points.

Who’s the ginger now, Joe?

A Tale of Two Studios

As folks were lining up outside the theater, things got downright dirty between our boys and the Gears of War 3 crew. It’s tough enough to split time and share precious theater space with a rival studio, but swag is where you gotta draw the line. On days two and three things reached a boiling point and t-shirts emblazoned with crimson Cogs began bombarding the Halo: Reach line. A full scale swag showdown of Epic proportions erupted.

The fighting was fierce. The tweets rained down like fire, my friends. But just when things looked most bleak, with Sketch threatening to “swagstomp” Epic with a volley of Reach-themed pins, t-shirts, and bottle openers, Cliff arrived at the theater bearing a peace offering.

Sporting a fresh Gears of War 3 t-shirt hot off the presses, Sketch declared that a delicate cease fire had been struck between our two camps. The Swag Wars of 2010 were over. Bungie + Epic = Battle Bros to the End.

Brian’s BungiePic PhotoStream Bonanza

So, we promised some good coverage of our E3 escapades and hopefully you followed along in realtime. If you missed out on any of the embedded journalism Brian brought to Bungie Tweets, we’ve got you covered. Sketch went ahead and posted the cream of the crop into a sweet flickr slide show, complete with commentary. Bam!

The image of me being hounded by the Japanese paparazzi probably warrants some additional explanation. Our resident expert on all things Asian (and Mr. Miyagi to our young hero, Carney-san), Joe Tung, tells me they were simply enamored because they believe that gingers don’t have souls. The reality is that I’m huge in Japan. (And that they may or may not have been told I was Frankie.)

Wax On

I’d also like to note that while I was happy to see the Dirty Manassas on the drink menu, I was heartbroken to see that “Six on the Beach” didn’t make the grade. Some of my best work. Oh, well. Maybe next year.

On The Home Front

While the majority of this update is dedicated to wrapping up all the E3 aftermath, it would be a damn shame if we didn’t give some props to the studio-at-large. Most of the Reach team stayed behind this week with bigger fish to fry, continuing to blitz through the remaining bugs as Reach proper comes into the ZBR home stretch. It’s almost there.

The monumental amount of work involved with prepping our E3 content for show (and still being injected into what will become the retail build) is absolutely mind blowing. Though our E3 away team got to bask in a little bit of glory this week, witnessing firsthand the stunned looks on everyone’s faces as space was finally revealed and we unwrapped Firefight live for the very first time, we want to make sure that none of our stay at home heroes went unsung.

For Marcus and the team, Reach has been a massive investment of talent, resources, and time. When we say this is the most ambitious game Bungie has ever built, we’re not just blowing smoke. The proof is in the pudding. Reach is huge and it is awesome. Space combat in Campaign and Firefight 2.0 are two examples that we felt strongly demonstrate what this team is capable of. We were damn proud to show them both off on the rest of the team’s behalf.

We hoped you like what you saw. Stay Tuned.

Just Wanna Do Something Special

One thing you might have seen was female Spartans. Real female Spartans, too. No longer will our Halo-playing ladies be relegated to gear fit for a knuckle draggin’ male. Nope. It’s all form-fitting fashion from here on out.

Brian wanted me to make sure that I clarified the distinction between male and female and further expounded on the role that player customization plays across all of Reach’s modes. All of your Spartan armor choices and investments, with a few notable exceptions (i.e. Flaming Helmet in Campaign cutscenes) translate across all game modes. That goes for gender as well. So, while we were showing off Noble Six’s female side in our Campaign trailer and in Firefight, if you’re more into the manly stuff it’ll totally be your call. You get to flip that switch.

And there’s more. Noble Six isn’t the “strong, silent type,” either. Both male and female voice actors were cast for the role, so whichever gender you choose, you’ll won’t miss out on any facet of the full campaign experience.

You might also note that I’ve unmasked another Armory exclusive in the screenshot above. In Firefight, you’ll be able to earn additional first person Firefight Voices via the Armory. In the E3 build, we let players listen to Noble Six, Carter, Kat, and Jorge regale them as they cut wave after wave of Covenant infantry down to size. Of course, there will be plenty more to choose from in the full game, but I don’t have time to dig too deeply into all the details. I’ve got some Firefight business to take care of.

Firefight 2.OMG!

Yup, Firefight is back. Yup, it’s better than ever. And yeah, as promised on Bungie Tweets earlier this morning, I’m about to drop an epic breakdown of most of the options you’re likely to have at your disposal in September. I say “most” because there are still some things about Firefight we’re not ready to reveal and I say “likely” because Lars wanted me to make it abundantly clear that the game isn’t shipped until it’s shipped. Until then, everything is subject to change.

That said, get ready for Scrollpocalypse 2010. Here’s the Firefight options stripped right out of the build we brought with us to E3:

FIREFIGHT SETTINGS

WAVE PROPERTIES

ROUND 1 WAVE PROPERTIES

SKULLS (ON or OFF)

RED

BLUE

YELLOW

MYTHIC

CATCH

TOUGH LUCK

FAMINE

CLOUD

TILT

BLACK EYE

GRUNT BIRTHDAY PARTY

COWBELL

IWHBYD

INITIAL WAVE

USES DROPSHIP

ENABLED

DISABLED

SQUAD SELECTION ORDER

ORDERED

RANDOM

SQUAD 1

GRUNTS

ELITES

ELITE PATROL

ELITE INFANTRY

ELITE TACTICAL

ELITE AIRBORNE

ELITE SPEC OPS

ELITE GENERALS

ELITE STRIKE TEAM

BRUTES

BRUTE PATROL

BRUTE INFANTRY

BRUTE TACTICAL

BRUTE CHIEFTAINS

BRUTE KILL TEAM

HUNTERS

HUNTER PATROL

HUNTER INFANTRY

HUNTER TACTICAL

HUNTER STRIKE TEAM

HUNTER KILL TEAM

SKIRMISHERS

SKIRMISHER PATROL

SKIRMISHER INFANTRY

JACKALS

JACKAL PATROL

JACKAL SNIPERS

HERETICS

HERETIC SNIPERS

HERETIC HEAVY

SQUAD 2

(SAME AS SQUAD 1 ABOVE)

SQUAD 3

(SAME AS SQUAD 1 ABOVE)

MAIN WAVES

USES DROPSHIP

ENABLED

DISABLED

SQUAD SELECTION ORDER

ORDERED

RANDOM

SQUAD 1

(SAME AS SQUAD 1 ABOVE)

SQUAD 2

(SAME AS SQUAD 1 ABOVE)

SQUAD 3

(SAME AS SQUAD 1 ABOVE)

SQUAD 4

(SAME AS SQUAD 1 ABOVE)

SQUAD 5

(SAME AS SQUAD 1 ABOVE)

BOSS WAVE

USES DROPSHIP

ENABLED

DISABLED

SQUAD SELECTION ORDER

RANDOM

ORDERED

SQUAD 1

(SAME AS SQUAD 1 ABOVE)

SQUAD 2

(SAME AS SQUAD 1 ABOVE)

SQUAD 3

(SAME AS SQUAD 1 ABOVE)

ROUND 2 WAVE PROPERTIES

(SAME AS ROUND 1 ABOVE)

ROUND 3 WAVE PROPERTIES

(SAME AS ROUND 1 ABOVE)

BONUS WAVE PROPERTIES

BONUS WAVE DURATION

15 SECONDS

30 SECONDS

45 SECONDS

60 SECONDS

90 SECONDS

2 MINUTES

USES DROPSHIP

ENABLED

DISABLED

SKULLS

(SAME AS ROUND 1 WAVE PROPERTIES ABOVE)

SQUAD SELECTION ORDER

ORDERED

RANDOM

SQUAD 1

(SAME AS SQUAD 1 ABOVE)

SQUAD 2

(SAME AS SQUAD 1 ABOVE)

SQUAD 3

(SAME AS SQUAD 1 ABOVE)

WAVE LIMIT

ONE WAVE

ONE ROUND

TWO ROUNDS

ONE SET

TWO SETS

THREE SETS

FOUR SETS

FIVE SETS

TEN SETS

NO LIMIT

TIME LIMIT

1 MINUTE

2 MINUTES

3 MINUTES

4 MINUTES

5 MINUTES

6 MINUTES

7 MINUTES

8 MINUTES

9 MINUTES

10 MINUTES

12 MINUTES

15 MINUTES

20 MINUTES

30 MINUTES

45 MINUTES

60 MINUTES

NO LIMIT

GENERATOR PROPERTIES

GENERATOR COUNT

DISABLED

1

2

3

SPAWN ORDER

SEQUENCE

RANDOM

LOSS CONDITION

LOSE ONE

LOSE ALL

SCENARIO SETTINGS

HAZARDS

ENABLED

DISABLED

WEAPON DROPS

ENABLED

DISABLED

AMMO CRATES

ENABLED DISABLED

CUSTOM SKULL SETTINGS

RED SKULL SETTINGS

SPARTAN TRAITS

SHIELDS AND HEALTH

DAMAGE RESISTANCE

UNCHANGED

10%

50%

90%

100% (NORMAL)

110%

150%

200%

300%

500%

1000%

2000%

INVULNERABLE

SHIELD MULTIPLIER

UNCHANGED

NO SHIELDS

NORMAL SHIELDS

2X OVERSHIELDS

3X OVERSHIELDS

4X OVERSHIELDS

SHIELD RECHARGE RATE

UNCHANGED

-25% (DECAY)

-10% (DECAY)

-5% (DECAY)

0% (NO RECHARGE)

10% (SLOWER)

25% (SLOWER)

50% (SLOWER)

75% (SLOWER)

90% (SLOWER)

100% (NORMAL)

110% (FASTER)

200% (FASTER)

HEALTH RECHARGE RATE

UNCHANGED

-25% (DECAY)

-10% (DECAY)

-5% (DECAY)

0% (NO RECHARGE)

50% (SLOWER)

90% (SLOWER)

100% (NORMAL)

110% (FASTER)

200% (FASTER)

SHIELD VAMPIRISM

UNCHANGED

DISABLED

10% LEECH

25% LEECH

50% LEECH

100%% LEECH

IMMUNE TO HEADSHOTS

UNCHANGED

ENABLED

DISABLED

IMMUNE TO ASSASSINATIONS

UNCHANGED

ENABLED

DISABLED

WEAPONS AND DAMAGE

DAMAGE MODIFIER

UNCHANGED

0%

25%

50%

75%

90%

100%

110%

125%

150%

200%

300%

INSTANT KILL

MELEE MODIFIER

UNCHANGED

0%

25%

50%

75%

90%

100%

110%

125%

150%

200%

300%

INSTANT KILL

GRENADE REGENERATION

UNCHANGED

DISABLED

ENABLED

INFINITE AMMO

UNCHANGED

DISABLED

ENABLED

BOTTOMLESS CLIP

WEAPON PICKUP

UNCHANGED

DISABLED

ENABLED

EQUIPMENT USAGE

UNCHANGED

DISABLED

ENABLED

EQUIPMENT DROP

UNCHANGED

DISABLED

ENABLED

MOVEMENT

PLAYER SPEED

UNCHANGED

0%

25%

50%

75%

90%

100%

110%

120%

130%

140%

150%

160%

170%

180%

190%

200%

300%

JUMP HEIGHT

UNCHANGED

0%

25%

50%

75%

90%

100%

110%

125%

150%

200%

300%

PLAYER GRAVITY

UNCHANGED

50%

75%

100%

150%

200%

VEHICLE USE

UNCHANGED

NONE

PASSENGER ONLY

DRIVER ONLY

GUNNER ONLY

NO PASSENGER

NO DRIVER

NO GUNNER

FULL USE

SENSORS

MOTION TRACKER MODE

UNCHANGED

OFF

ALLIES ONLY

NORMAL MODE

ENHANCED MODE

MOTION TRACKER RANGE

UNCHANGED

10 METERS

25 METERS

75 METERS

150 METERS

APPEARANCE

ACTIVE CAMO

UNCHANGED

OFF

POOR CAMO

GOOD CAMO

WAYPOINT

UNCHANGED

NO WAYPOINT

VISIBLE TO ALLIES

VISIBLE TO EVERYONE

VISIBLE NAME

UNCHANGED

NO WAYPOINT

VISIBLE TO ALLIES

VISIBLE TO EVERYONE

FORCED COLOR

UNCHANGED

OFF

RED

BLUE

GREEN

ORANGE

PURPLE

GOLD

BROWN

PINK

WHITE

BLACK

ZOMBIE

WAVE TRAITS

DAMAGE MODIFIER

UNCHANGED

0%

25%

50%

75%

90%

100%

110%

125%

150%

200%

300%

INSTANT KILL

DAMAGE RESISTANCE

UNCHANGED

10%

50%

90%

100% (NORMAL)

110%

150%

200%

300%

500%

1000%

2000%

INVULNERABLE

SHOOTINESS

UNCHANGED

NORMAL

MARKSMAN

TRIGGER HAPPY

GRENADES

UNCHANGED

NORMAL

NONE

CATCH

VISION

UNCHANGED

NORMAL

NEAR SIGHTED

EAGLE EYE

HEARING

UNCHANGED

NORMAL

DEAF

SHARP

LUCK

UNCHANGED

NORMAL

UNLUCKY

LUCKY

LEPRECHAUN

EQUIPMENT DROP

UNCHANGED

ENABLED

DISABLED

IMMUNE TO HEADSHOTS

UNCHANGED

ENABLED

DISABLED

IMMUNE TO ASSASSINATIONS

UNCHANGED

ENABLED

DISABLED

BLUE SKULL SETTINGS

(SAME AS RED SKULL SETTINGS ABOVE)

YELLOW SKULL SETTINGS

(SAME AS RED SKULL SETTINGS ABOVE)

SPARTAN SETTINGS

RESPAWN TIME

10 SECONDS

15 SECONDS

20 SECONDS

25 SECONDS

30 SECONDS

45 SECONDS

60 SECONDS

90 SECONDS

2 MINUTES

3 MINUTES

ON WAVE

STARTING LIVES

UNLIMITED

NONE

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

15

20

25

50

MAXIMUM EXTRA LIVES

(SAME AS STARTING LIVES)

BASE TRAITS

(SAME AS SPARTAN TRAITS FOUND
UNDER SKULL SETTINGS ABOVE)

LOADOUTS

LOADOUT 1

NAME

AIR ASSAULT

MARKSMAN

RECON MARKSMAN

EXPERT MARKSMAN

OPERATOR

GRENADIER

MEDIC

CORPSMAN

STALKER

DEMOLITIONS

INFILTRATOR

SECURITY

SPRINT

ARMOR LOCK

ACTIVE CAMO

[REDACTED]

DROP SHIELD

JET PACK

NOBLE 1

NOBLE 2

NOBLE 3

NOBLE 4

NOBLE 5

NOBLE 6

CARTER

KAT

JORGE

EMILE

JUN

[REDACTED]

[REDACTED]

[REDACTED]

[REDACTED]

JUGGERNAUT

BERSERKER

MAVERICK

ZOMBIE

DEMON

ANGEL

REDSHIRT

LING LING

POOKIE

FNG

NOOB

CAMPER

SPECTER

BUNKER

CLAYMORE

FIREBASE

INTEL

NINJA

POWER

COBRA

EAGLE

HOG

BEAR

WARRIOR

DECEIVER

[REDACTED]

PRIMARY WEAPON

ASSAULT RIFLE

DMR

CONCUSSION RIFLE

ENERGY SWORD

FLAK CANNON

FOCUS RIFLE

GRAVITY HAMMER

GRENADE LAUNCHER

MAGNUM

NEEDLER

NEEDLE RIFLE

PLASMA LAUNCHER

PLASMA PISTOL

PLASMA REPEATER

PLASMA RIFLE

ROCKET LAUNCHER

SHOTGUN

SNIPER RIFLE

SPARTAN LASER

SPIKER

[REDACTED]

UNCHANGED

SECONDARY WEAPON

(SAME AS PRIMARY WEAPON ABOVE)

ARMOR ABILITY

JETPACK

ARMOR LOCK

ACTIVE CAMO

DROP SHIELD

[REDACTED]

NONE

SPRINT

[REDACTED]

GRENADES

1X FRAG

2X FRAG

3X FRAG

4X FRAG

1X PLASMA

2X PLASMA

3X PLASMA

4X PLASMA

1X FRAG, 1X PLASMA

2X FRAG, 2X
PLASMA

3X FRAG, 3X
PLASMA

4X FRAG, 4X
PLASMA

1X FRAG, 1X PLASMA

NO GRENADES

HIDE LOADOUT

NOT HIDDEN

HIDDEN

LOADOUT 2

(SAME AS LOADOUT 1 ABOVE)

LOADOUT 3

(SAME AS LOADOUT 1 ABOVE)

LOADOUT 4

(SAME AS LOADOUT 1 ABOVE)

LOADOUT 5

(SAME AS LOADOUT 1 ABOVE)

GENERAL SETTINGS

FRIENDLY FIRE

ENABLED

DISABLED

BETRAYAL BOOTING

ENABLED

DISABLED

You still with us? Pretty mind blowing, eh? Lars also wanted me to make it clear that while you do have a ridonkulous number of levers and knobs to fiddle with, you are still operating in the confines and context of Firefight. It’s not limitless. He’s been seeing some forum posts with blueprints for gametypes that might be a bit ambitious even for Firefight 2.0. The analogy he used is that this is the house that Firefight built – you won’t be busting down walls and ripping out studs – but, sure, feel free to rearrange the furniture.

Oh, and I can confirm that Buggers are out of Firefight altogether and that the Black Eye skull isn’t in unless you specifically customize the experience to include it. The default matchmaking version of Firefight will be one full Set, start to finish (unless you run out of lives), and when I checked in with Lars this afternoon he was busy prebaking a bunch of additional game types to bring to the table for launch.

Of course, we’ll be keeping our eye out for sweet community variants as well, so when the time is right, make sure you drop your awesome Firefight variants into your File Share so we can dig out the good stuff.

Wrapping Up

Here’s a few other highlights from the week, in no particular order:

Pete wrecking the rental car on the first day, getting a parking ticket, and then trying to tip the hotel valet with a sweet Reach t-shirt. (The valet was NOT impressed. Cash only, please.)

Steven Spielberg and his son getting some hands on time with the Sabre. Awesome.

Keighley joking that it was his early interview with Marcus that ultimately resulted in Reach’s space combat.

“Brian’s Game.” He came, he saw, he did NOT press ass to porcelain inside the facilities at the Convention Center. The guy is a machine.

Getting a massive nostalgia hit checking out the newTwisted Metal.

Saying what’s up to the boys working the En Masse Entertainment booth. Tera looks hot. Good luck with the launch, guys!

Lars’ endless grin after the Firefight reveal went down and players refused to give up their seats during the first hands-on demos.

The mad dash Escape from LA with Tung at the wheel and Sketch taking point on navigation duty. E3’s five o-clock conclusion coupled with Lakers madness made for a harrowing exodus, but we got out alive and got back to Seattle unscathed.

Seeing the life-sized Noble Team statue first hand.

Being trapped on the plane ride home between a guy who was snoring before all the bags were stowed and a dude whose funky breath had me reaching for the vomit bag.

Guys with big sacks. For swag.

Talking to MJW (you know who you are) outside the airport lounge and being totally grateful for his kind words after we reluctantly agreed to let him pick up our tab. Thanks for playing, Michael! You’ve got swag inbound. Wish we could do more.

And with that, we’re done here. Honestly, it was such a whirlwind experience that it’s nearly impossible to encapsulate. One of those gotta be there type things. If you were there and dropped by the experience, thanks for checking out the goods. If you weren’t, well, I wouldn’t worry too much. Launch is right around the corner and we’ll be making some more noise sooner or later.